Tanya Fox, editor, and Brooke Smith, managing editor, are the editorial team behind CardMaker magazine. When not reviewing design submissions and planning future issues of the magazine and pattern books, they can often be found exploring websites for inspiration and visiting their favorite local coffee shop.

They hope you’ll visit the blog often as they share card-making tips, designer features, paper-crafting techniques, project inspiration and a peek at life inside the CardMaker office.

Good morning! Niki here and today I’m going to show you how I store my leftover scraps from card making. I know most of you have sheet quarters and smaller bits left around after you complete a project. What do you do with them? I went through several different solutions before I settled on this one: pre-cut panels and card bases, sorted by color!

These boxes came from my local office supply store. The original use was for 4 x 6-inch index cards, but they fit A2-sized (4 1/4 x 5 1/2-inch) cards and panels perfectly.

I use the black one to store pre-cut and folded A2 cards. There are four sections: colors, blank (white only), bases and liners. Liners are lighter-weight papers that I cut to size to line the inside of dark card bases. It makes stamping and writing much easier to see. The colors and white sections are pretty straightforward, but the “Bases” section is a little different.

This section is where I store card bases that I have already done some type of embellishment on, such as the card shown above. I also have a lot of scalloped-edge cards in there as well as some rounded corner ones.

This next one is my favorite box, though.

Mmmm … a rainbow.

This is where I store leftover paper from full sheets that I cut up for cards. They are all pre-cut to either 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches or slightly smaller.

I used to save EVERYTHING once upon a time, but I found that I only used pieces that were big enough to die cut or cover a card. Now, when I have finished a project, I gather all the papers that are left over and trim them all the same size (if possible) and sort them into this box. That way I can pick through to find just the right thing for my next card.

I sort the panels by color—solid colors in rainbow order, blanks (all white pieces), watercolor papers (so they don’t get confused with the whites), and patterns.

I never need a bigger box than this. Having the paper pieces sorted by color helps me to use them up! My previous setup had them sorted by size only, and that got way out of hand!

Much like the “Bases” box, there is a special section in this box full of panels that is called–you guessed it–“Panels.” This section is for card fronts or backgrounds I make that don’t belong to any particular project yet. It’s sort of like experiments gone right.

This panel is probably going to be a Christmas card this year!

And that’s how I keep the paper clutter in my craft area tamed. Thanks for stopping by today to check out my paper storage idea. After you’ve sorted all your scraps, why not leave a comment below and tell me how you manage your extra paper pieces? I’d love to hear your ideas!

I store my cards and panels in a big shoe box similar to your file box – again sorted by color. However I do keep my smaller scraps (now that die cuts have become so popular), for the smaller die cuts. I store these in color coded folders. The red folder has all the reds and purples, yellow folder has all the yellows and oranges, etc. It works for me.